What Are Little Boys Made Of?

What Are Little Boys Made Of? In his essay "What Are Little Boys Made Of?", Michael Kimmel describes how America has been so focused on girls and feminism, that boys have been forgotten about.

"There's no question that there's a boy crisis. Virtually all the books cite the same statistics: boys are four to five times more likely to be diagnosed as emotionally disturbed, three times more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder, and fifteen times more likely to be victims of violent crime" (Kimmel, What Are Little Boys Made Of).

American men have always tried to prove that they are real men by doing an enormous amount of things to prove it. They take amazing risks, such as driving fast, building up their muscles, making a lot of money, etc. The self made man has done many great things in the world but when does he stop feeling that he has to prove it. He has built wonderful civilizations but he still feels insecure and still feels that he has to prove himself. For instance, I remember many different occasions in high school where different guys would get into fights solely to see who was stronger, who was more of a man. Even if one of them did not want to fight, he felt that he couldn't turn down the challenge because that would make him look and feel like less of a man.

What many do not realize is that men are not only trying to prove themselves as strong men to the women, but mainly to other men. For example, my friend Ryan and I went to see a movie when I was visiting him in Arizona last year. He wouldn't take me to Ruth 2 see the new Madonna movie, The Next Best Thing, because he was afraid that other guys would think he was gay and make fun of him. It was considered a chick flick and heaven forbid he be caught dead or alive in that movie. From early childhood when little boys look to their fathers for approval, to their school days when their always showing off to other boys, to their work days when they're competing with other men to...